OfS appoints interim director for fair access and participation 

Professor Chris Millward has been appointed interim director for fair access and participation at the Office for Students (OfS).

Millward, who previously held the role from 2018 to 2021, returns as the Department for Education begins recruiting for a permanent appointment.

Millward will sit on the OfS board and serve in a part-time capacity alongside his position as professor of practice in education policy at the University of Birmingham.

Millward said: “I am delighted to be returning to work with the OfS during this crucial period, and grateful to my colleagues at the University of Birmingham for making this possible. We have made terrific progress on access and participation during the last two decades. 

“Now is the time to seize the opportunities afforded by a wider range of pathways to higher education, which will enable more people and places to benefit. I look forward to contributing to this important work.” 

Susan Lapworth, chief executive of the OfS, added: “We’re all looking forward to working with Chris over the coming months as he provides leadership for the next phase of our important access and participation work.”

The move comes as John Blake’s four-year term in the role ends this year.

Blake said: “It has been an enormous honour to serve as director for fair access and participation  at the Office for Students. When I took up the role, I was charged with reforming OfS’s system of access and participation plans. 

“Now that all-new plans are in place across the sector, and with the government recently setting out its plans in its Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper that they will build on this by introducing a risk-based equality regulation system subject to parliamentary time, and seek to address barriers around postgraduate access and success, I feel that it is the right time for me to move on to a new challenge. Therefore, I have decided not to seek a second term as director for fair access and participation.”

He added: “When I joined OfS, I said my priority for access and participation plans was “evaluation, evaluation, evaluation”. The recently-published OfS evaluation of our reforms showed we have seen a definite increase in scale and nature of evaluation work by higher education providers, which will continue to drive a positive culture of learning and improvement in the sector. 

“I am delighted to see that evidence of the impact of our reforms, but also proud that the OfS has been willing to undertake and publish such a clear-eyed and thorough-going evaluation of our ongoing work.”